3 comments:

Hi Malcolm, could you please offer any insight into what we have witnessed in Tijuana this past week with so many attacks and dead? More specifically do you see a relationship between "Guicho" who is now at odds with Sanchez Arellano and El Chapo?

We are just hearing so many different things; some blogs have been reprinting the Proceso story that matters will worsen here as far as the violence. Others are saying this is a fight between Sinaloa and La Familia for control of the plaza. Do you have an opinion on this?

Dear Mr. Beith,Herewith please find my short note to High Times about your dubious policy suggestions:

Re: Madness in Mexico by Malcolm Beith, High Times, December 2010, pp. 78-82.

Dear Editor,

US drug prohibition aggravates Mexican violence, but US gun prohibition will cure it? One prohibition here doesn't fix a foreign problem, but another ban here will? Give us a break. Prohibiting one-shot-per-trigger-pull "assault weapons" to Americans will not keep Mexican gangsters who already ignore prohibitions against drugs and murder from obtaining more Commbloc RPGs, grenades, and machine guns any more than banning US Fords will keep Mexican billionaires from buying Italian Ferraris. Remember that the cartels smuggle over 2 million pounds of your favorite contraband every year. You think a US ban on civilian guns will stop them from smuggling military hardware from China or wherever? Gun bans disarm the good guys, not the bad guys. Victim disarmament is not a policy that saves lives. Think carefully—please!

About Me

I'm a 39-year-old freelance journalist/author, until recently based in Mexico City. I've written for Newsweek (with whom I was an editor from 2000 to 2007) Slate.com, Foreign Policy, Jane's Intelligence Weekly, FDI magazine, the Sunday Times, World Politics Review, Soldier of Fortune, The News (Mexico City), The Sun, Nogales International and the Haitian Times. I've written two books on Mexico's drug war, "The Last Narco," published September 2010, and "Hasta El Ultimo Dia," published in March 2012. I hold a Master's Degree in War Studies from the University of Glasgow.
I have provided commentary on the drug war for CNN, NPR, the BBC, The New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, AOL News, CTV (Canada), Xinhua, El Universal and Reforma (Mexico) and several other publications and major news outlets.
I can be reached for requests for commentary/talks on the Mexican drug war at mbeithpublic@gmail.com
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